Print of the week

Black field with white, again

2012-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Monotype made with handcut paper stencil, and debris from the patio

Black field with white

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

I prepped some plates for a demo on indirect drawing,or the "Paul Klee technique" as my boss calls it, but I over inked them, so they never dried to the right consistency. I put them outside for a couple of hours, hoping that the sun would speed up the drying a little but instead the wind deposited a large amount of debris on the surface of the ink. Rather than waste them, I quickly cut out a silhouette, placed it at the bottom of the plate, and ran a print from it.

I like it so much, that I salvaged one of the sheets that someone else threw away from the garbage, soaked it, and ran the ghost on it. The sheet had been crumpled and had a layer of wheatpaste one it already from the previous failed print, imparting an interesting texture to the final image.

Monotype workshop, session 2.5: Viscosity

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

The second session of the workshop I taught viscosity inking. Viscosity, mostly because I think it sort of has to be covered even if it ends up going over most people's heads. Carla, one of the students, pointed out that I use many food metaphors when I discuss technique--for viscosity, and the way the thin ink resists the stiff ink, I used the example of cocoa powder poured over water failing to mix, but mixes the other way around.

The face I draw when people watch me draw is pretty obvious and repetitive. My repertoire of things I can draw while talking and being observed is now this face, a skull, and maybe hands doing something. I need to expand.

The blue shirt is the viscosity roll, and I finished theprint by added a couple of blue arrows from a potato stamp:

This fellow is a two plate print, with the first print utilizing viscosity inking for the light blue part of the pajamas:

And here's another version of the same image. I reworked it from the ghost of the previous print, but I changed the color so much it's not really evident.

Monotype workshop, session 2: Chine Colle

2011-11-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

The second session of the monotype workshop at Josephine Press I taught chine colle and viscosity inking. Chine colle is always a big hit, and even though I have a tendency to use the neutrals and muted tones for my demos, students always love getting into the patterned and colorful washi papers for their own prints. Anyhow, the night before this workshop I drew two skulls on pieces of washi, one deer skull and one marmot skull. Washi is so thin that it often doesn't stand up to erasing at all, so I just let the mistakes stay in the finished drawing. I also used the Epson 2000 we have at Josephine Press to print up some photographs on to some coated washi from Hiromi paper. That way, I could show them how to make an archival print that still has the collaged look of magazine and newspaper clippings, though, to be honest, I think my cat monster didn't turn out so hot. If I have time, I'll probably add another layer to it.

The two chine colle-ed prints with pre-drawn washi:

And here's a ghost (a ghost is when you use the ink left on the plate after printing,) printed from one of the previous images:

The Cat Monster chine colle, but I think it's unfinished:

And then lastly, I made this guy, inspired by a recent villain on Adventure Time, just to give a quick refresher on stencilling, the lesson from the first week:

Polystyrene

2011-11-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

As part of the workshop I taught in Salt Lake last month (check the last blog entry), I researched what substrates could receive ink beyond just paper. Fabric is an obvious solution that I've explored extensively, but I also found that polystyrene plastic takes acrylic screen ink wonderfully

Here's the skeleton girl screenprint on polystyrene with colored pencil, cut and ready to be reduced in the oven:

An illustration of just how much the polystyrene reduces:

One of the issues I'm coming ot understand is that the colors intensify--the individual marks are moved closer together, so the color appears more concentrated after reducing the image.

I added drilled the holes into the pieces to joint the doll after reducing using a 1/16th drill bit, and added a jump ring and silver chain:

This guy reduced a little more, maybe because I left it in longer:

I used plastic adhesive to attach a pin backing, making the little acrobat a brooch:

Monotype workshop, session 1

2011-11-14T09:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 12th, was the first session for the monotype workshop I'm teaching at Josephine Press. We covered basic stuff, inking and stencilling. Here are two of the three prints I made as part of the demo. The skeleton in cat ears I finished by adding a blue background with watercolor.

Tradigital, 1

2011-11-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, I started working at Josephine Press in Santa Monica. It's a small press that publishes a few prints, does some workshops, etc. Josephine does a lot of "tradigital" work, prints that combine digital and traditional techniques. Mostly, theses are intaglio and relief prints over digital backgrounds. The digital part is often very colorful, which is taking some getting used to for me. John Greco, the master printer at Josephine, had me make two tradigital relief prints using photopolymer plates and digital backgrounds.

Photopolymer plates are also something I've never worked with much before. Light hits the plate and hardens the polymer there, so to work with it you make a negative of the image you eventually want to print, much like photography. I painted my negative on wetwork acetate using cel medium, but you can also just invert an image in Photoshop and print it out on a transparency if you don't like having to think backwards.

The relief printed image is from an artjam I did with my pal Trent Call, and the digital bit is a photograph I took of downtown LA. The paper is this special washi that's coated to be used in inkjet printers from Hiromi Paper.

Person | Place | Thing

2011-11-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have two sculptural pieces and two flat pieces in "Person, Place or Thing" curated by Todd Smith, Brandstater Gallery, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA. Opening reception is November 14th, 2011, 6-8pm.

Alternative Surfaces

2011-10-31T08:14:00.000-07:00

^Bleach screenprint demo sample, made by me

I just got back from Salt Lake City. I was in town to teach a workshop at Saltgrass Press, Alternative Surfaces. It was a beginning level course, so I tried to keep most things pretty low-tech, and relied upon the unexpected nature of the materials: bleach, velvet, plastics.

^Screenprint on plastic by Stefanie Dykes, one of the founders of Saltgrass

^Monoprinted muslin form, made by a student

^Bleach stenciling on velvet

^Embossed and bleached velvet by student

^Monoprinted muslin, a demo sample made by me

Danny

2011-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Steamroller Press, OTIS

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

I went with Tim Musso and a gaggle of his students from Riverside up to OTIS in LA for their Steamroller Press event featuring the oversized work of Sean Starwars. I ended up donated my hot pink print to OTIS (as I can't imagine owning something with that much hot pink) and Tim's print was such a success that multiple OTIS students traded him for a copy.

Print Vacation

2011-08-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

While I move from Long Beach to Los Angeles, my wee press and screen equipment are all packed away, but once I've finished relocating I'll be back, posting prints and suchlike. In the meantime, I'm doing lots of sketches and small drawings, preparing for when I'm able to resume working on oversized things.

Xkot (pronounced "Scot")

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

My pal Xkot Toxsik in monoserigraphy! I haven't decided yet if I should title this "Xkot" or "Scot" but I think he'd be really annoyed if I used the "x"-free version.

JRC

2011-08-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Another monoserigraph, this one of my friend JRC.

Steph I & II

2011-08-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

A portrait of my friend Stephanie Carrico in monoserigraphy.

I found out that I'd actually already done this portrait while moving out of my studio the week that I write this post(*sob!*):

And here it is while being worked on the screen:

David

2011-07-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is David Bessent, an artist living on Phoenix, AZ:

I made this portrait in a last minute flurry of activity as I tried to squeeze the last bit of useage out of the printshop as I could. Here's the David print on the screen, and two others in the background:

Jenny

2011-07-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a portrait of my friend, Jenny Cotterill. I found a cache of prints I never photographed from early this year while moving out of my studio, and this is one of them. I've been really enjoying playing with powdered graphite on the monoserigraphs. It holds the water differently than watercolor and can behave unpredictably.

Skelly tights.

2011-07-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

I screenprinted feotal skeletons on navy blue tights. I love these so much that I'm already wearing them out, even though July is obviously not the time to be wearing tightly woven leg coverings.

From the MFA Show: "They've Already Left"

2011-07-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

This piece involves literal printmaking the least of all the four in the show. There's black on black plastisol screenprinting of an image that most people can't see until it's pointed out. And then, beyond that, the pattern is repeated in each figure, but slightly modified, and the figures are dotted with clay elements that are reproductions of an original made from a mold. So, maybe I don't know if I care about strict boundaries around printmaking anymore the way I did when I was an undergrad and always so upset when people didn't understand or know about it.

From the MFA Show: "But I didn't know"

2011-06-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

This piece is seven feet tall and was constructed in the gallery. I worked on it right up until the day of the opening. It wasn't laziness, it was because the size meant that I had no other space big enough to put all of the pieces together.

From the MFA Show: "Unravel (B)"

2011-06-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is this piece in its final incarnation at my MFA exhibit in the Werby Gallery on the CSULB campus.

Relief print on fabric, welded steel.

From the MFA Show

2011-06-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

I had my MFA show at the very end of the spring semester, during finals week, giving me as much time as possible to finish the work. Because of all this extra time, the work was all new, finished in 2011, and fewer students looking for dinner came to the opening reception than usual.

The tall piece, seven feet tall, had to be assembled in the gallery because I don't have enough room in my workspace to put the components together. Lighting, as usual, takes longer than I think it will and even then,

it's not quite satisfying. The work in the show is screenprinted and reliefprinted, sewn, and welded steel.

MFA Thesis Show

2011-05-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

At last!

I install the show today. All of the work is finished within this semester and some it still isn't finished (though it will be by Sunday).

La Sierra University, pt 2

2011-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few more pictures and prints from the presentation Christian Salcedo Ward and I did at La Sierra University on collagraphs and monotypes.

La Sierra University, pt. 1

2011-05-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

The printmaking professor at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA, invited Christian Ward and I to come out and do a demo on collagraphs with monotypes, and to do a brief Powerpoint presentation on our own work to a combined group of classes.

Here's a portrait of the student Kiyomi, who I've hung out with before. It's done with Akua ink and monotype, then I printed the ghost with a collagraph plate.

In St. Louis

2011-04-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, I am so busy. I've split the skin on my fingers from sewing and carving. So, no new prints this week as all the stuff I'm working on is large and won't be done for a while. In the meantime, here are images of my work on display at Wash U in St. Louis for SGCI.

Housefly

2011-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Using waterbased textile ink, I screenprinted flies all over these grey American Apparel tights. I stretched the tights over a flat piece of paste board (don't use corrugated cardboard!) and rotated them to cover the whole piece with a polka dot pattern of flies. I heat sealed each fly with a heat gun, which should have been adequate, but sadly the flies faded significantly after the first wash. Thankfully, I got to wear them at least once before they became less than impressive. Next time I'll try using plastisol instead of the waterbased.

Ever so slightly NSFW photo after the jump

Birthday Boxes

2011-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have had goals to make a present for all of my loved ones on my birthday, but in the last couple of years I've been lax in this endeavor. One year, I handpainted thrifted mugs and bowls, and another I made plush tentacles. But making labor intensive presents would necessitate that I keep the list of recipients short, and there would inevitably be someone whose feelings would be hurt.

I'm 30 this year, as of January 22nd, and this year I made something easily mass produced and easily mailed through the post to avoid having to cut my list of recipients short and to keep myself from going broke from postage. However, I'm also lazy when it comes to implementation so most of my intended recipients via the mail have yet to receive their cards because I've yet to mail them.

Three color screenprint on paper. Four variations of background pattern (polk-a-dots, stripes, faux bois, and damask), and three possible variations of faces plus glasses.

This fancy photo backdrop is made by taping two pieces of office paper together. Very fancy.

I bought my first metal flask for my birthday present to myself. Because adults need to be prepared to drink at all times.

Business Men, 2

2011-03-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

Update: Because a few of have expressed interest (well, to be honest, one person), if you send me $5 I'll send you ten cards. Or, if you see me in person I'll just give you one.

I gave away a six inch stack of business cards at the LA Art Show. Though I didn't see an increase in page views to any of my sites, it doesn't hurt to give away a little something for free, especially when it costs me only a little bit of labor. But because of this I was all out of business cards, and I've got a show coming up this weekend.

Since these were new, I took the opportunity to get an easier to remember URL and added five new characters to the collection. Here are the five new ones:

These are the three old ones. There's also a blank businessman, so you can draw in your own face.

These are screenprints and watercolor on found paper. I keep a box in the printshop for people to put their discarded prints in, and that's what I use for the unwitting collaborator series and I use the smaller pieces of paper for this. You can see how diverse the paper stock is because of this:

Look how wee they are!

Wanderers

2011-03-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

This piece is a work in progress. There are currently four figures, and I intend on there being nine when it's finished. It's plastisol screenprint on cotton, steel, polymer clay and ephemera. It's all black on black, which I adore, but is perhaps a tad gimmicky. This piece is still untitled.

I took a week off to work on my project report, the written portion of my MFA thesis. Studio art majors don't need to write very much for their thesis, as most of our work is supposed to be the art, but I still wanted to make it worth saving in the archives of the library, and so spent far too long on it. I researched the correct amount of spaces to put after terminal punctuation for at least an hour or more (it's two spaces in a thesis paper in California, fyi).

On March 19th, the 2010 SGC Student Fellowship Exhibit Reception

Round 7

2011-02-21T09:11:00.001-08:00

I have two prints in Kayo Gallery's seventh anniversary invitational, Round 7. The prints are relief with watercolor on found paper, and the rest of the show looks pretty amazing, too. Check it out if you're in Utah. It runs Feb. 18th through March 15th.

"He Never Came Back" IV

2011-02-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is the final print in the series. Like III, this one had to be gutted and have its silhouette changed. I had to borrow it back from the gallery because I just wasn't happy with it being shown the way it was. This piece returns to Twentieth Gallery tomorrow.

Still searching for the best spot in my house to photograph work. This one is in the kitchen, the last ones were in the office.

Welded steel infrastructure. polyester stuffing, relief print on cotton flannel and found fabric.

LA Art Show 2011, and even more prints

2011-02-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

In addition to screenprinting and collaborating with Linda Lyke, I also printed some mono/collagraph/relief prints on my own. I didn't prepare as much as I should have for these demos. I just grabbed a bunch of old plates and used those to generate the prints instead of making something new specifically for the event. I prefer my prints from the event last year to this one, but I did have more time then and much fewer people to talk to. Being chatty and friendly while working is so difficult.

From the LA Art Show facebook page:

This one is from an old collagraph plate with a chine colle. The image is from the collagraphe and it's just inked ala poupe.

Chine colle onto blank paper with kitikata of a collagraph and relief print. The block is from a much older print.

This guy I carved while giving a linocut assignment to my class last semester.

Same linocut, chine colle and collagraph:

LA Art Show 2011, more prints

2011-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

In addition to collaborating with Linda Lyke, I also made some mixed media prints on my own and some screenprints. Of all the mediums, screenprinting was the least popular to the crowd, but I think that could be because so many people already know all about it. I've been trying to think of ways to liven it up for next year, but so far I haven't come up with much.

Three color screenprint, image generated from a copper etching. I rather like this one. The first two colors I made by adding powdered graphite to transparent base, giving it a washed monotype effect.

Two color screenprint, image from a photograph. Inexplicably, I could never get this one to print well, but it looked best when I printed it in my sketchbook.

Print Jam at LA Art Show 2011

2011-01-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

For the first half of my shift at the LA Art Show, I worked with Linda Lyke. We collaborated on four prints, and this one is my favorite of the four:

It's collagraph, monoprint, and relief.

LA Art Show, 3rd time

2011-01-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

I'll be at the LAPS table demo-ing printmaking techniques all day on Friday during the LA Art Show. Our booth is P90, right across from the big black umbrella sculpture and the pile of shattered china.

"He Never Came Back" III

2011-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

I made this piece about 9 months ago from collected printed scraps, but was never really happy with it. In my critique class, it elicited the question, which I treated as rhetorical, "Why are you a printmaker?"

This week I gutted it, changing its shape and infrastructure, and added additional elements to the surface, re-sewing many aspects. It retains its original materials for the most part, and is the fourth in what I had originally intended to be a series of 5 prints, but I think I may leave it at this one.

Materials: Relief print on fabric, welded steel infrastructure, buttons, polymer clay

Unwitting collaborator, V

2011-01-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

Relief printing on found paper, one piece with a torn edge. The found paper had woodcut, graphite, and lithography on it, and I printed over it with a sintra cut. The printshop is vacated for the winter break. It's my favorite time to work, and I'll miss it so when I graduate.

Prep work

2010-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

I don't have any new prints to show, but I have been working hard on some new pieces, welding infrastructure and carving, getting new screens stretched and buying fabric.

Last Demo of the Semester: Litho

2010-12-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Brian and I finished up our print survey class with the hardest of the media: lithography. It was barbaric: students had to grain the stones themselves with the levigators and carburundum grit, a lengthy process which left a few so beat that they didn't have much left to put into the actual drawings on the stone. Brian was lead on the litho assignment, so I took over the secondary processes. During the printing process, I showed a quick and dirty chine colle using UHU gluestick (it's acid free). Because we required two of their final prints to be experimental in some way, I also showed them how to do an easy butcher paper stencil screenprint over the lithographs.

Sketchbook

2010-12-13T12:26:00.001-08:00

I've been working on some very large prints for my upcoming thesis exhibition (opening May 22nd!) and so haven't been making so many impressive weekly prints. Nonetheless, I'm still working!

As part of the lithograph assignment we gave our class we asked for two experimental multi-media prints. I gave the class a quick butcher paper stencil screenprint demo (which took about 10 minutes total) to give them an option that was fast and easy for one of their multi media prints. I pulled the screenprints onto a lithograph first, and then while cleaning up pulled the last of the ink onto my sketchbook.

Unwitting Collaborator, part IV

2010-11-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

This one i know the original author. The dot pattern is from when I helped Brian Borlaug install his "Reagan is Turning 100!" show. Brian isn't a screenprinter, but wanted to screenprint directly onto the walls of the gallery, which took a bit of troubleshooting but eventually we figured it out. This print is a combination of relief and screenprinting.

This was part of the Quotidian encounters show curated by Christian Salcedo Ward.

Screen Demo

2010-11-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

The assignment for my 370 class was to do a three color screenprint with overlapping, transparent colors, making the stencil on the screen with screen daring fluid and screen fill. This demo print is not to the same standard that I've been trying to stick to for demo prints. I've been trying to make all of the demo prints at least a little exciting, but this one I did a little last minute.

At Minona

2010-11-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Gary Spisak started a donation based coffee shop in his studio at Cal State Long Beach. It's called Minona, after the street he grew up on and an African goddess of fertility. Minona is open whenever Garry feels like having it open, and the offerings besides coffee vary--once he had vegan Guiness ice cream.

Gary invited me to do a piece on the windows of Minona, so I screenprinted these figures. Screenprinting on glass works out ok, and it's easy to clean the ink off and start over if you mess up, but the ink takes quite a long time to dry, and it easily squishes out while screening because none of it is absorbed like it is with paper.

These photos reveal just how little of a photographer I am:

In the corner

2010-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

This print (or this diptych of sorts) exists both as a 2D regular print, and as a 3D relief print on fabric.

Perception of scale operates in such a funny way. Seen two dimensionally, the figures are imposing, frightening in their strangeness and read as large, even looming. But three dimensionally, when they are in our space with us, they are pathetic, the viewer suddenly wishes to protect them.

Claire

2010-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is another print in my ongoing portrait project series. I need to come up with a better name for the series than that, too.

As I've improved with screenprinting, I've increased the size of the image. One of the issues with doing a larger stencil is the ability to have even adequate pressure over the entirety of the image, which is no small feat. There's a reason why doing a large even layer of a single color is the hardest thing to do in screenprinting. Doing small runs, printing only one image in an evening (and printing in the evening when it's cooler and less likely to dry rapidly), and overcompensating with the ink are remedies for the difficulty of pulling a large even layer of ink.

This is from a photograph of my little sister Claire Taylor, who is also a printmaker and artist, taken at my second oldest brother Blue's wedding. Claire says is looks both like her and our brother Orson. It's a big family we have.

Here's one of the ghosts:

Steve

2010-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

This print is from another demo of monoserigraphy that I did for Kimiko Miyoshi's monoprint class. I tried to improve it this time, because I know some of the students in the class have seen me do this before: I revised the handout, made it more concise, added a part about registration at point of exposure, and added a few bits that I've figured out over the last few months.

I got mad sweaty while I was doing this, too. It's probably because of all the coffee I had at Minona while preparing the screens throughout the day, in and out of my studio.

facebook pafe for camilla taylor

First Copper Etching

2010-10-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

My co-teacher, Brian Borlaug, works almost primarily in copper etching, so for our print survey class he wanted to cover copper for the intaglio section. I've only ever worked with zinc, and the etching class at CSULB also is done with zinc, so I took the opportunity to learn with copper along with the students. We had each of the students do a tiny 3" by 3" copper plate first to get the hang of the medium, in addition to their big plate for the assignment.

Here's the wee copper plate, and the finished prints by a few of our students, though far from all of them:

Unravelling

2010-10-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

This new print is the largest paper print I've ever made. It's 5' by 4' and I had to go buy fleece to jimmy rig as felts because none of the shop felts were anywhere big enough to cover the plate while printing. Fleece doens't work quite as well, but it will do in a pinch. This print is still untitled.

And for extra behind the scenes stuff, here's a picture of the registration guide and of my class critting the piece.

Unwitting Collaborator, part III

2010-09-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

Screenprint over found etching

Redemption

2010-09-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last week while the students were busily working on their monotypes, Brian and I sporadically painted on a large plexi inbetween helping the students. At the end of the day, we tried to print it but by then the ink had just totally dried out and was so sticky it tore the paper instead of transferring. Brian said we should just throw it away, but I had just that very morning told the students to hang on to their crappy old prints so they could rework them later on. I couldn't just throw it away now!

The paper was so torn that I needed to layer washi all over it to maintain any structural integrity. The paper was originally BFK cream, and I chine colle-ed two large sheets of white kitti katta over top when I printed the image, done in black and Payne's grey. The image is from a drawing of people falling through space done while flying back from NYC to LA. I must be a wonderful seat mate for long flights.

First day of class

2010-09-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first day of being an actual real live teacher. Brian Borlaug and I are teaching the print survey class at CSULB this semester, and the first assignment we gave was monotype. I took lead on this one because I'm a bit more adept at it.

This first print for the demo is reductive mark making. This one is done with just graphite ink, using Q-tips as brushes. We have some of these amazing Japanese q-tips in the shop, and I try to use them sparingly so they don't run out too fast.

The second print is just a reworking of the first one's ghost, with the addition of more graphite ink and midnight blue.

The third print has a top roll and a bit of chine colle.

After the third print, we let the students start beveling their plates while Brian and I collaborated on this reworking of the ghost from the last print. I really like the red fingertips--a dashing little touch of color that I probably wouldn't have done myself.

Then, class was over. But, we had two extra sheets of paper soaking so the two of us made another print each. This one is mine, though I wish I hadn't done the top roll as the ink had already started to set so it got a little too salty and dark for my tastes. The chine colle on their heads is bits of teabags.

Small People

2010-08-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of months I've been really getting into making jewelry and wearables. It's sort of a waste of time right now, as I should be devoting more of my efforts into my thesis project and not into things that don't relate to my thesis. Well, at least I'll be brilliantly accessorized when that final show rolls around in the spring.

I made these in an "edition" of 100. The quotation marks are because the doll brooches aren't prints, though the faces are made partially with a mold, so editioning them is a little different. Each doll comes packaged in a frame tin with a unique mixed technique print in the back.

Here they are on display at Twentieth Gallery in Los Angeles, and should you be interested they are $50 apiece:

Unwitting Collaborator, part 2

2010-08-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

Three more in the Unwitting Collaborator series in which I use discarded prints and drawings as the base for an image. Two of these have chine colle-ed tea bags. The letterpress pieces are from the University of Utah's letterpress studio trashbin, and then carted all the way back to Long Beach, CA, so they're doubly scrounged from the trash: the first time as discarded prints, and then revitalized with discarded type.

Letterpress, monoprint, screenprint:

Relief print, monoprint, chine colle, letterpress:

Etching, letterpress, monoprint, chine colle:

Bleach Screenprinting

2010-08-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is a screenprint using bleach suspended in a clear matrix instead of ink on found black paper. Though it's somewhat toxic (wear a gas mask and work in a ventilated area) bleach prints are so much fun to make. Even though you know damn well what the screenprint will look like, there's a magic to pulling the print and watching the image develop from black to the bleached out golds and browns, and sometimes even blues (for some reason, black velvet often bleaches out to blue). This print is actually about a year old, but I'm going to be trying some new bleach prints this August.

HNCB IV

2010-07-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

This is fourth in the suite "He Never Came Back," and it's for sale at Twentieth Gallery along with the first and second from the suite (the third and fifth I'm hanging onto for my thesis show in the Spring).

It's a remix of old relief prints, rearranged and sewn into new patterns and on a new form along with lots of scrap from the process of making other pieces. It stands about four feet high

And here's an unedited image of the front view:

"Head"

2010-07-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

"Head" Blind embossing on paper, paper construction

Blind embossing is incredibly difficult to photograph, I've found. This piece is another in the ON|PAPER show. It's in an edition of 100, and I made it intentionally easy for people to construct themselves, but I don't know if anyone who has purchased one has actually tried it yet or not.

All of the papercraft pieces I've made heretofore have been very complicated. The little man with a ghost in his chest takes me about an hour to construct, and I'm the person who designed it so I can't imagine how long it takes the people who bought one, or if they even try, for that matter. The other concern was how I didn't think I've brought anything very new to the medium so far. What is it that I can do that all of the other artists can't or haven't? A black and white illustration is pretty common.

With this in mind, I designed two new papercrafts that are very simple to construct but a little bit more complicated and innovative on my side. They're blind embossed, so all of the detailed on the surface is actually 3D instead of a flat drawing. To make this one, I carved out the features in reverse--making a mold. It takes some getting used to thinking this way, but since much of printmaking requires a constant awareness of reversal, I got the hang of it pretty soon.

Ghost

2010-07-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Like the self contained little ball person, the ghost was also motivated by a desire to broaden my papercrafting and to make something very easy to assemble. It stands just a hair above 3 inches.

It has a very light monoserigraph layer with graphite, and then blind embossed with a sintra engraving.

This piece is part of the show I'm in at Billis Gallery in Culver City, ON|PAPER.

HNCB III

2010-07-07T09:30:00.001-07:00

This is the third in a series of five prints, entitled "He Never Came Back, III." It's made from printed scraps--the bits of the print I cut off when sewing together other work. I saved all of the black pieces, sewed them together, and then added bits of white buttons.

Here's one and two:

Unwitting Collaborator

2010-06-30T20:29:00.001-07:00

It gives me great pains to throw something away that is still useful. This proclivity to hold onto things is constantly on the verge of A&E Hoarder territory that I rationalize away as my inclinations are towards usefulness, not sentimentality. This is willful self deception.

In the printshop, people discard old prints, old paper, and test proofs. I collect these, and layer over them each time I print something else. I print multiple times on a found piece until it's become something new, unrecognizeable to the original artist, and perhaps better, perhaps not. I have a drawer full of these in progress, but here are a few that I deemed "finished." Mediums include lithography, screenprint, monoserigraphy, letterpress, etching, relief, monotype, and hand drawing.

B-sides

2010-06-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

screenprints in moleskine sketchbook:

The term "b-sides" in referrence to art process ephemera is shameless cribbed from Cein Watson.

Commercial applications thereof

2010-06-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today I made a two color screenprint as the packaging for some barrattes. Medusa, a mermaid, and a man with just one big curl were the three motifs for the cards. I used discarded prints collected throughout the semester from other students and printed on the backside, then mounted them onto another sheet of paper before cutting them down--making a cardstock that, while laborious, has the added benefit of being for free.

I made a grid of six of the cards, two of each design, and burned it on the screen. But I was distracted while spraying out the screen after the initial exposure and ruined the second mermaid. I kind of liked the look, though, so I used screenfill to block out the text and outlined the mermaid's body, making this:

I'm going to use those as postcards and finally send some snail mail to my many long distance friends.

Apogee

2010-05-21T19:41:00.001-07:00

I'm in a show at DDR projects in Santa Ana with Rob Brown and Tyler Ferriera.

Angela

2010-05-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Portrait of my friend Angela H. Brown, done in monoserigraphy with powdered graphite and water. Currently in the show "21 Days" at Pravus Gallery in Phoenix, AZ.

Litho

2010-05-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've gotten vastly behind in my weekly printing posting duties, so I'm just going to pretend I'm not and resume now.

This is a lithograph drawn and printed for the print survey class's litho demo.

Everyone in the class drew on the stone for the lithography demo, and we used litho crayons, litho pencils, rubbing compound, stopping out with gum arabic, and spray paint. It was started with a drawing by Tyler Ferrera, who is the resident litho expert at CSULB and he was in charge of showing the class how to do all of the finicky stuff required by litho. I was largely in charge of retrieving stuff and tearing down paper.

High School

2010-04-08T18:36:00.001-07:00

High school is different in big cities. The school is massive and an impenetrable fortress, with guards buzzing you in and out. I arrived early, but ended up late to the classroom because I couldn't figure out how to get inside of the building.

Anyhow, these lucky students have a printmaking class, and I was a guest artist earlier today who showed them monotypes with waterbased inks.

This made me realize that I need to expand my go-to images for demos. Frontal view portraits and skulls are well and good, but I've got way too many images of them from demos now. Trouble is, they're the easiest thing to draw upside down.

I really like the way watercolor pigment can shatter on the plate before printing. It's not something I've tried to play around with before, but I want to give it a try now:

The students were wonderful. I really expected a group of mostly apathetic adolescents, more like the way I recall art classes from high school, but they were engaged and interested, excited about the process and art in general. Teaching is pretty fun, but I always end up just exhausted from it.

"John"

2010-03-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

"John"

In the "Liminal" print exchange showing at Kayo Gallery in Salt Lake City till April 13th.

Sintra engraving and variable paper construction.

Smith portrait

2010-03-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

Portrait of a Joseph Smith from a potato. This is one of two prints I'll have in the Liminal show opening at Kayo on Friday in SLC. I cut my thumb while carving this, much to embarrassment, and my brother in law suggested it was blood atonement.

Print on washi with Akua ink, and then chine colle-ed onto Rives BFK.

I used my couch as a drying rack:

This is one of two prints I'll have in the Liminal show.

Business Men

2010-03-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

I've got a bunch of fancy events this month, so I needed to make some fancy new business card. The card can be cut up to make a little man, with four varieties: devil in tighty whities, sad guy, cat, and a blank so you can draw a face yourself.

Around around

2010-03-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

Still untitled, two color relief print, 22 by 30 inches, edition of 20.

Liminal

2010-02-25T21:07:00.001-08:00

Two faced

2010-02-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

Monoserigraphy with powdered graphite and blind embossing. I made this after printing a series with the face, once, and then found a scrap of paper in the print shop and made this with it.

To leave and never return

2010-02-15T22:52:00.000-08:00

Monoserigraphy and blind embossing, variable edition.

Graduate Shmaduate

2010-02-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

I was awarded the Southern Graphics Council Graduate Student Fellowhip. The award includes a solo show at the 2011 SGC in St. Louis, MO, $1,000 towards creating a body of work for the show, and giving a presentation at this year's SGC in Philadelphia banquet dinner. Yay!

I almost hyperventilated from excitement when I found out this morning.

Oil Stick Monotype

2010-02-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

One of my old studio mates got rid of a box of old oilsticks. Before recommending to the students that they try to use them for monotype printing, I gave them a quick try. They work pretty good, but still don't give a very fine point or much control. I've still found it's easier to get much detail and depth with reduction (wiping away material with tools) that with the addition step.

Oil stick and kitikata chine colle on buff BFK:

I drew the skull without referrence, which explains if not excuses the misproportion.

Print Survey Class First Assignment Demo: Monotype

2010-01-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

Friday, I did my first demo for the Print Survey class I'm assistant teaching. Luckily for me, last week I spent hours making monotypes in front of a crowd so I was prepared to do it for the 26 or so students in the class. Though the crowd at the LA Art Show was significantly more enthusiastic, I still think I did a pretty good job.

First print: flat of color, reductive monoprint using oil based inks with a stencil made from torn paper and talcum powder.

Using the ghost of ink from the first print, I made an additive monotype with oil based inks and chine colle for the shirt:

Roxanne Sexauer, the professor for the class, showed the students tracing and then printed the traced plate. Finally, I showed the class an additive monotype using hydrated watercolors (the kind which comes in a tube) and aquacrayons:

Using waterbased materials is useful if you can't spend a lot of time in the studio. Since you have to wait for the watercolor to dry before printing anyway, you can make the painting on the plate at home and then bring it to school to print it.

Then, we let the class go, and while I was cleaning up all the inks and rollers and such from doing the demos, I made this final print using the ghost from the previous plate. I think this one is the most successful of the day.

Monoprints from the Show

2010-01-28T13:11:00.001-08:00

A selection of the better monotypes I made at the LA Art Show:

1. mono14, 2. mono15, 3. mono13, 4. mono12, 5. mono11, 6. mono10, 7. mono9, 8. mono8, 9. mono7, 10. mono1, 11. mono2, 12. mono3, 13. mono4, 14. mono5, 15. mono6

This one is my favorite:

I mostly used sample paper that I've collected from various product fairs from when the economy was better and companies gave away all that stuff for free. I've run out now, so I need to stop being such a cheapskate.

LA Art Show, 2010

2010-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

I returned again to the LA Art Show with my wee press, and did LIVE! printing of monotypes at the Los Angeles Printmaking Society's booth.

My little didactic speech about the process I mastered, and repeated the same set of jokes over and over. Thankfully, the only people who heard their repetition were the poor people staffing the booth with me. I didn't bring any referrence material, so some of the monotypes I made are rather poor as I figured out the right pressure for the plate and paper and got used to painting in front of people, but perhaps it's good to get used to embarrassing myself in front of of a crowd of people. It's practice for teaching.

This was my second year in a row doing this at the LA Art Show. Perhaps next year I'll plan ahead better and see if we can sell the prints I make for charity or something.

Panties

2010-01-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

I drew this for the Copper Palate Press Panty Exchange. Each artist does an image and then they screenprint them on a variety of panties.

I was going for a vagina dentata feel, because all of my other ideas I thought were too phallic.

The Panty Exchange takes place Friday, 15th, at Copper Palate Press in SLC from 6-10pm.

Carrot Persons in their room

2010-01-08T10:31:00.001-08:00

I got into trouble for using this campus gallery (every department is so territorial and it serves me right for forgetting about that part of academia) but I'm still glad I did just because I'm finally happy with this piece after seeing it as I had intended it to be.

Relief print sintracut on unbleached muslin and bleached white flannel using black block printing ink (with one in dark brown). This piece is the largest relief print I've done in years, and certainly the most detailed of all of the printed sculptural pieces I've made.

I don't have a title for this piece as of yet, but I'm working on it.

Skulls

2009-12-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

The night before I left for SLC, I made some last minute Xmas presents for family members. The photo emulsion was locked away, and the darkroom in a state of inoperability, so I used screenfill instead for my stencil. The outline of two skulls was pretty easy to freehand spur of the moment, and in case of any pinholes I might have missed I painted on two layers of the stuff.

I used a photography of a skull from an old anatomy textbook I keep in my studio and painted the two skulls using black watercolor.

Neglecting to bring my brushes with my when I retrieved the anatomy text, I instead used the two crappy brushes left in the shop for screenfill. Painting on nylon netting is incredibly forgiving and easy, so the poor quality of brushes didn't really bother me much.

I printed on t-shirts for family members, and did one on my old grey hoodie for me.

One of my favorite aspects of this process, monoserigraphy, is seeing the "exhausted" print. Seeing what happens as the color runs out and the traces left behind of how it had settled into the screen.

Pillows

2009-12-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

Not exempt to the commercial impulse, I screenprinted on shiny sateen fabric the silhouettes of animals and then made them into throw pillows. I did this solely for the purpose of selling them and making a little extra cash off of obligatory gift giving. So far, they have been a middling success (nothing close to the tentacles), but they involved such little effot to make that it has paid off in the end. I made the silhouettes by cutting the shapes out of paper, and then using those paper shapes to burn the screen stencil. These are available for sale at Frosty Darling in Salt Lake City should you be so interested.

T-shirts: The Evergrowing Problem

2009-12-13T22:34:00.001-08:00

Printing on t-shirts is the bane of every printmaking professor. Students always want to try it, it's messy, and you end up with mostly stupid looking stuff. And so, I contributed to this problem by teaching the printmaking class at El Camino Community College how to do monoserigraphy on t-shirts.

I also did some live printing of this technique at the recent CSULB annual Holiday Sale in the Werby Gallery. I should have photos of that soon, taken by my friend Salvador, but he's working on his finals right now so it might not be till next week.

A Great Horror of Buttons

2009-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

This fellow is the second in a series of five. Two are made, but a group of two is a couple, three is a family, and four is two couples, hence why I'm going to make five in total. Five is a crowd. Five can be unrelated to each other but still occupy the same space.

They are made of the scraps and remainders from other prints--random pieces sewn together to make new cloth and then made into this ungulate sort of guy. Covered in a great horror of buttons and haunted by the reminder of when I was actually successful and people liked buying my work.

New Carrot

2009-11-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

I finally finished a new large scale print. Sadly, it's been rather poorly received in crits and by friends, so I'm considered other ways to learn from it or to improve upon this piece.

Here it is stuffed, in front of the older carrot people:

I think the form of the older carrot people is more what I'm after, with smaller heads, taller, and with narrower bodies. I'm going to try one more like this, but changing the form somewhat and shrinking the head. I also learned that the eyes looked fine on the painted form, but mysteriously look too close together when printed, though the ratio has not changed. I think that in the end, I was attempted to cover the whole form and flesh out the entire piece (knees, hands, buttocks, etc.) when one of the stronger points of the old pieces was that not all of the questions were answered.

LAPS 20th National Opening and Panel

2009-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

People actually looked at my print! Extraordinary!

I'll be part of the panel discussion on the 21st at 2pm, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, LA. Come prepared with uncomfortable questions to ask me.

APE 2009

2009-10-15T23:34:00.001-07:00

That's me! Table 242. I have specially screenprinted paper bags for putting purchases inside.

APE 2009

Saturday, Oct. 17
11am - 7pm

Sunday, Oct. 18
11am - 6pm

The Concourse
620 7th Street
San Francisco

Monoserigraph of Filiz

2009-10-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing my portrait project is a monoserigraph of Filiz.

At the open studios event a month back a few people asked to learn this method, so I organized a demo. I charged a very small fee so I could cover the cost of materials and afford to buy a beer afterwards. It ended up going pretty well, and was the third time I've demo-ed this technique and the first time I did not stutter from nerves. Ideally, I'd like to try to workshop it as it doesn't require much in the way of facilities and doesn't use anything toxic or dangerous, making it ideal to teach nonprintmakers. Above is the print I made to demo the technique, and below is one of the two made by the attendees (the other is going to China!)

I've recently run into the strange problem of my monoserigraphs being too precise, and people assuming they are manipulated photographs. Or maybe people just don't believe that anyone can draw anymore.

Activity Adventure Quest

2009-09-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Activity Adventure Quest! The anthology David Bessent and I, Camilla Taylor, curated, edited, and bound. I screenprinted the covers using other people's old ink, some of which was perhaps a little bit moldy. The zine is available for $5 from The Trunkspace in Phoenix, Frosty Darling in Salt Lake City, or you may order them directly from me.

I printed a few with just the third color, and then David and I watercolored them. He did the one in the center, I did the other two:

"Among Us" cont'd

2009-09-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

This fellow is new and never shown before:

And look at all of it together!

"Among Us"

2009-09-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Come and see my new work. If you came to open studios last weekend, then come and see my new work in a different room.

Me by Gilles

2009-09-05T13:07:00.001-07:00

Camilla Taylor Long Beach CA
Originally uploaded by gillesdestijl

Gilles was traveling around the country photographing people before returning to his home in Paris, living the life of an overly romanticized novel.

Website

2009-08-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

Website is up! And actually functional!

While not a print at all, it is made by me (I'm exhausted all over again just remembering) and features many prints.

Horsefleshproductions.com

Birdcage Tights

2009-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Another pair of screenprinted tights. These are acid dyed in blue, and then screenprinted with a discharge solution in the birdcage pattern, so there's no actual ink on the finished piece.

Print of the Week was put on standby for the summer break as I worked on some very large pieces. But, school resumes in two weeks and I intend to be back and posting all manner of stuff then. I've been working on a series of large three dimensional prints and now I really want to show them somewhere so if you have any gallery suggestions let me know. I'm late applying to the 2010 season for the galleries I usually work with (and whom I adore) but I'm eager to have a show finally after taking such a long break.

the rack

2009-06-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

New block print drying, to be sewn in a couple of weeks:

First color of some new monoprints drying, done on found paper:

Dancing legs

2009-06-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm on summer break, which means that I'm trying to make a years worth of money in three months. And so I haven't been printing as much, but I'm trying to stay on track with it. I'm working on some bigger pieces, and just finished printing a new volume.

Two legs

2009-05-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is actually an old print sewn into a new composition. The fabrics and buttons are all re-used, mostly from the stuff my friend Brooks was getting rid of.

I'm moving away from the ungulate chimera shape a little, and getting more into just people shapes, and working with imperfect sewing. My sewing is entirely self taught, so I've tried very hard to disguise that by making things as perfect as I can. But right now, I'm playing with exposed seams, and running stuff through the washer to tangle and unravel them a little more before finishing.

Also, I'm organizing another print exchange. This one is very small and space is limited, so email me if you're interested.

Bleeeee-ACH!

2009-05-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Bleach screenprinted on procion dyed fabric, and then hours of sewing.

Camille not Camilla

2009-04-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

This print is of my neice, Camille. I'm Camilla, she is Camille.

Monoserigraph with two passes.

In process photo:

Salt

2009-04-27T21:45:00.001-07:00